This hate does not spawn from anger because one of the members killed my cat or stole my girlfriend, but rather because this band showed me that I have a long way to go before I can write and perform music of this caliber. Needless to say, I went home the next day and feverishly practiced scales for the first time in months, maybe even years.

So, a while back, I dated this girl who told me a story about the time she saw DragonForce at The Pound (R.I.P.) in San Francisco. Supposedly, there was this band called Protest the Hero that opened up for them and the whole time they were performing, the entire plastic sword-wielding crowd was yelling at them to get off the stage because they wanted DragonForce. This story is hilarious to me now because 1) My ex girlfriend is stupid and wouldn’t know good metal if it shit in her cereal, and 2) No one has given a shit about DragonForce since 2006, meanwhile, Protest the Hero are still relevant and crushing it (without the help of countless guitar effects and studio wizardry).

Well, it looks like the Canadian Kings of Prog are back with another release entitled Scurrilous, which is due out March 22 (next Tuesday). I’ve had the pleasure of giving it tons of playtime and I am diggin’ it. A lot.